Washington State Looks to Give Ski Patrol Some Power
By Rocky Thompson on January 25th, 2011
My friend Chris used to jump off the chairlift on the last run of every day and ski to the parking lot. The Ski Patrol would chase him down and take away his lift ticket in the parking lot. There was little else they could do in Upper Michigan. But that might not be the case in Washington soon. A state law would make it illegal to ski out of bounds at resorts, punishable with up to $1000 fine.
This could get ugly. While the ski patrol wouldn’t be able to hand out tickets, they could write down license plates or take IDs and hand the out-of-bounds skiers off the police for processing. While I applaud their efforts, I have to ask where they draw the line. What happens if someone touring nearby passes in and out of a resort? Besides, part of me would prefer that people who duck ropes occasionally get caught in an avalanche. It’s important to thin the gene pool.
Tags: ski, ski patrol, ski resort, Skiing, Snowboarding, washington
well… here in Slovenia we have this weird law that says it’s illegal to ski out of bounds and off piste inside boundaries. BUT at the same time it says the law does not apply in those areas (clearly because you wouldn’t be allowed to ski in your own back yard if it didn’t say that).
Ski patrol or the police can in theory take your pass but they themselves will admit they cannot do more than threaten as the law clearly contradicts itself.
The only sensible solution would be for the law to say the resort operator responsibility ends outside of groomed terrain since that’s the only thing they’re really worried about.